Page 18 of Bear’s House

“Sawyer, tell him to stop…”

“I’m not getting involved.”

I carried the mugs in on a tray, steam rising in soft curls toward the ceiling beams. I found three boys wrapped in blankets on the deep sofa, firelight moving across their faces, the pink credits rolling on the screen, and Mikey talking over all of it. JJ took his mug with both hands, blew on the surface, and immediately took a sip too hot for any sane person. He yelped, laughed, and went back for more. Sawyer accepted his with a nod that tried very hard to be casual, like a big boy would nod.

Mikey was already asleep. His mug sat untouched on the side table, and he had one hand fisted in the blanket and the other curled against the cushion where I’d been sitting, like he was holding the space for me. I settled back into the space beside him. Picked up my own mug. Let the warmth of it seep into my palms, and the warmth of them seep into me, and the fire crackled, and the movie played.

Chapter 8. Sullivan

It was one of my favorite days at The Hearth: the mornings when the Daddies and Mommies organized a playdate so our littles could run around and have fun while we talked and caught up. Only the regulars tended to show up, since there were no scenes involved and a lot of the newer people who had just started frequenting the place were looking for the usual club experience. But that only made it better, in my opinion. Cozier. Safer. Just our closest people.

The foam mat was laid out in the middle of The Hearth the way it always was for these events: soft, with the alphabet printed on it so the littles could learn their letters while they played. JJ and Henry were sitting side by side on it, talking animatedly while they built an enormous LEGO structure. But from the way they were arguing, they clearly did not agree on how it was supposed to look.

"That's a stupid idea," I heard JJ say, loudly.

Henry gave him a light shove. "It's not stupid, you're stupid."

"JJ," I called, raising my voice just enough to carry across the room.

He looked up at me with those enormous blue eyes and gave me an angelic smile.

"We're just talking, Daddy," he said.

"I don't like the tone of this conversation," I said. "If you're going to fight, you don't get to play together. Are we clear?"

"Sorry, Daddy."

"Sorry, Sir," said Henry.

Henry wasn't my submissive, but by general consent among the subs, the baseline honorific for all the Dominants there was "Sir" — they weren't required to use it, but they could if they wanted to, and Henry liked to.

"It is stupid though," JJ muttered quietly, apparently convinced I wouldn't hear him.

I rolled my eyes, even though that wasn't exactly a great example to set. JJ was complicated — my naughty, delicious boy — but I could tell the two of them were just playing, so I let it go.

"Daddy, do you want some tea?"

Mikey was at my feet, holding up a little plastic toy teacup. I put it to my lips and pretended to take a long, satisfied sip.

"Delicious, princess," I told him. He smiled that smile that turned me inside out every single time.

"I think I'm going to make a strawberry cake for everyone now," he said, picking up his play food and heading back to the fluffy rug I'd placed beside the table in case he wanted to stay close to me. It was his favorite spot. Mikey was so much shyer than his brothers — he liked playing by himself, or with the big baby doll he was always carrying, feeding her with a toy bottle while murmuring sweet things to her. It was adorable. But I did worry a little about him being so alone — I'd gently suggested, more than once, that he try to make some friends here. He always smiled and agreed and then ended up back at my side anyway. At least he had his brothers.

It was also a special day because my closest friends had all agreed to come.

Elizabeth was at the table with me; her little, Lucy, was across the room playing makeup with the other littles, her short purple dress visible among the group. Gustav, who rarely got to be little because of his manager role, was there with them too — his Daddy, Cris, a slim, short man who was nonetheless unmistakably a Daddy in every way that mattered, had come along, and for the first time in a long while Gustav was playing without worrying about anything else. It was good to see him like that.

Jeffrey was sitting to my left — another bear, big and bearded, with black hair threaded with gray and warm brown eyes. No sub at the moment, but unbothered about it. I want to spend some time just developing myself as a Dominant, he'd told me once, and I believed him.

Sawyer was with the other middles — a small group, because middles were always in the minority. Larissa, a Brazilian girl with warm brown skin and long curly hair, was one of them. Garrett, red-haired and blue-eyed, and John, who was Black and very handsome, completed the group. The four of them were playing video games on the TV Elizabeth always brought and we'd set up on top of one of the oak tables. Sawyer loved it — it was his main hobby, and sometimes I had to actually argue with him to get him to do anything else.

And then there was Dominic.

My old friend. He had long, meticulously kept hair and looked vaguely like Axl Rose in his prime, despite being almost my age — forty. He'd been down lately. His last sub, Sara, hadn't left because of incompatibility — she'd had to move away for work, and it had hit him hard. After she left, he almost stopped coming around entirely.

But this was a daytime event, no scenes, and he'd decided to show up. That made me very happy.

He was sitting beside me now, drinking a Diet Coke from the can — no alcohol allowed during playdate sessions — and watching everyone with that quiet stillness that was so characteristic of him. I wasn't going to bring up Sara and risk ruining the day, but he seemed lighter than the last few times I'd seen him. Maybe he was starting to find his footing again, slowly.